Why I Like You
by Team GEMINI
Summary: The bus stop closest to their school neared and Nanoha could see her friend off in the distance, but upon further inspection the brunette caught sight of another person beside Hayate. A tall blonde wearing the same uniform as them stood behind the frail teen with her hands holding the wheelchair's handles tightly.


**HiraYui**: So I was talking to my lovely mistress from another mattress, **Railgun** of the Polaris Project, and realized something rather comical. As fans we've done nothing but portray the relationship Nanoha has with Fate in some rather unhappy settings. This is funny if you think about it, but we're slowly but surely divorcing Nanoha and Fate with our unhappy little love stories. Sooner or later we'll have Fate running off with Hayate, or Fate overthrowing Hayate and stealing away her harem.

**The Railgun**: Bye-bye Ha'murica and hello Fa'murica, and sayonara Na'rope!

**HiraYui**: That was terrible…

**The Railgun**: Yeaa… **Jokulhaup** told me that when I said the exact same line to him. He did, however, enjoy my Za'frica joke!

**HiraYui**: On that note I admit I'm one of the people who kinda stopped writing cute little love stories about Nanoha and Fate and opted to pair that delicious blonde up with another willing lady, so as an apology to my own waifu, the lovely (albeit a little scary) N. Hinamori, I proudly present this story!

**The Railgun**: Bacon pancakes, making bacon pancakes, take some bacon and put it in a pancake. That's how you make bacon pancaaakeeesss!

* * *

_**Why I Like You**_

_The GEMINI Project_

**Chapter 1: Your Not So Witty Remarks**

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Nanoha sat in the bus with a well-known magazine in one hand and a cream filled chocolate donut in the other. She was reading up on dating tips and how to snag the perfect man, but the silly things written in the article was putting her off. The brunette had little to no interest in romance when it involved herself, but when it came to her friends and their love stories she was all ears. There was nothing she loved more than hearing about their sweet dates or cute little moments, unfortunately the stories started becoming a little more risqué after puberty finally settled in. Gone were the tales of romance and in were the harrowing trials of raunchy debauchery. They were only in middle school for Pete's sake! Nanoha sighed inwardly and took a bite of her donut, if only life were simple she thought to herself.

The bus stopped and allowed to passengers on. Two teenagers of average height marched in and headed towards the back, their hands tightly intertwined. Arisa Bannings and Suzuka Tsukimura grabbed the two empty seats beside the brunette and greeted her warmly.

"Good morning, Nanoha-chan."

"Good morning, Suzuka-chan,"

"Morning, Nanoha!" Arisa beamed uncharacteristically, her eyes were bright and lively signifying something good had happened to her the night before. Nanoha nodded sagely and decided not to prod the matter. "I see you've got another donut in your hand, when are you going to learn that you shouldn't eat that stuff so early in the morning?"

Nanoha took a big bite out of the donut and slurped out some of the filling to taunt the thin blonde. "I'll stop eating these," she waved the donut around for emphasis, "the moment my family's bakery goes bankrupt or when I get diabetes."

"With the way you pound those back diabetes is going to be the least of your problems," Arisa muttered back sarcastically.

The indigo haired teen beside Arisa giggled and pulled the blonde's arm closer to her. "Mou, stop teasing her," she said into Arisa's ear with a breathy voice. "You know what happens when…"

The final bit trailed off into a hushed whisper suggesting something dirty was involved. Nanoha could really care less about what her friends did behind closed doors, love was love, so as long as they kept her out of it. She wasn't the type of girl who liked to hear about such things and it sort of bothered her that her friends made blatant references to their newly acquired adult relationship.

"Nyahaha, you two are as lovey-dovey as ever." Nanoha commented innocently. She finished up the rest of her donut and licked her fingers clean not wanting to waste any of the scrumptious chocolate that coated them.

Arisa snapped out of her stupor and looked over to the magazine her friend was reading. "What'cha got there?" she asked rather brashly. "Don't tell me it's another one of your ridiculous self-help dating tip books?"

"I won't then," Nanoha replied courtly.

Patting the easily angered blonde on the head, Suzuka said, "You know she only reads that stuff because of us. She has to get her advice from somewhere and it surely isn't from Hayate-chan."

"Oh god any advice from that crazy witch is bound to get you arrested or worse."

"Hayate-chan's advice isn't _that_ bad," Nanoha stressed the word 'that' in a futile attempt to defend their friend. "I mean it's thanks to her that you guys even got together in the first place. I think you should be thanking her."

"I think so, too." Suzuka agreed almost instantly. There were a lot of things she was thankful for and Hayate's crazy plan was one of them, because if it wasn't for her she and Arisa never would have confessed.

Arisa sank back into her chair and huffed, she hated it when her girlfriend and Nanoha banded together against her. There was just no winning against it. Running her free hand through her short dirty blonde hair, the green-eyed girl turned to her love and smiled. Looking at Suzuka always made her feel a hundred times better even if she was the cause of her current predicament. Her goddess' smile was all it took to recharge her batteries.

"So did either of you get a text from our cosplay-maniac?" bringing out her phone from her pocket, Arisa shook it like a packet of tic-tacs. Suzuka nodded her head and took her Smartphone out and scrolled through her messages with the short haired brunette. "She told me she had big news."

"Hm," Suzuka kept scrolling surprising the girls beside her. "Hayate-chan didn't say much to me about what she was so excited about, we mostly just talked about hew new wheelchair."

"Oh she finally got that?" Nanoha asked with genuine interest, Suzuka nodded with a smile. "That's good; the old one was kind of falling apart."

"I know right?" the blonde chuckled ruefully. "She gave me a bit of a heart attack when the back tire blew out when we were scaling the ramp. I thought for sure she'd go shooting back down like a rocket!"

The ramp Arisa referred to wasn't exactly a real ramp; it was the steep incline leading towards the disabled girl's home. Going downhill was no problem for her, but uphill was another story. The wheelchair's poor old motor would blow out about half way up the ramp, forcing Hayate to push herself the rest of the way, and it wasn't much of a secret but the pretty little brunette wasn't exactly the most physically fit girl around. The three childhood friends would often walk her home to make sure she got over the ramp safely whenever one of her cousins couldn't pick her up from school. Hayate had many close calls because of the hellish hill she lived on, but this never stopped her from smiling.

"Nyahaha you looked about ready to chase after her, you looked so frantic."

"Well yeah, her cousins are friggen scary-especially the blonde one with the massive tits!" Arisa screamed out with both hands up in the air. "She'd skewer me if anything happened to our darling Hayate!"

"Why only you?" Suzuka asked with a pout.

"Because that woman has it out for me," she sneered darkly.

"Shamal-san would do something like that," I interjected in a matter-of-fact tone. "Signum-san on the other hand has that sharp sword and Vita-chan has that massive croquet mallet, I'd be more worried about them than their bubbly counterpart."

"You'd think that wouldn't you?" Arisa bit her bottom lip and sulked. "You're still on her good side after all; I can't expect you to understand." Hugging her pouty lipped girlfriend tightly, Suzuka gave the girl a quick peck on the cheek causing her to blush heavily. "S-Suzuka!" Arisa yelped helplessly. "W-What are you!?"

"Don't pout baby," Suzuka kissed her again this time on the lips. "If Shamal tries anything I'll just have to show her that picture I took of her during the Christmas party."

"What Christmas party?"

"Exactly," the heiress chirped.

"Suzuka-chan, I love you and all but you're a little scary." Nanoha laughed awkwardly and scooted away from the overly showy couple. She was cool and all with the same-sex love her friends had, but she was still trying to stay on the straight and narrow path so seeing such intimate displays of affection forced her to inwardly gag.

The long haired teen admitted to herself long ago that she did in fact have those leanings, but unlike her friends she struggled to keep it a secret. Her parents supported love of all forms and would accept her no matter what, but Nanoha couldn't find the strength to be true to herself. She was scared that people would make fun of her more than they already did, but what made it worse was the person she liked. You see she had a crush on the most popular girl in school. Fate Testarossa was forever out of her league, she couldn't even speak to her let alone get to know her better.

Nanoha wasn't the prettiest girl around or the thinnest, but she had a lot of heart and a great personality! Her friends said she was beautiful and that anyone would be lucky to have her, but only in a perfect world would that be true. Here in reality a girl like her would always be subjugated to teasing and slim pickings in the dating department. Nanoha resigned herself to the cruel fate she had been dealt and rolled with it.

This was merely one love that was never meant to be.

"I love you," Arisa cooed.

"I love you, too!" Suzuka gushed back.

Nanoha turned her head away from the PDA crew and stared out the window. "Bleh," she grimaced. The lover's reflection was visible and left the long haired brunette nowhere to turn.

Hey I just met you and this is crazy, but here's my number so—clamoring to get a hold of her phone, Nanoha answered it immediately silencing her rather embarrassing ringtone.

"Hello?"

"_Nanoha-chan!"_ shouted a very distinct Kansai accent.

"Hayate-chan, good morning." She greeted her friend with fake enthusiasm.

"_I'm waiting for you guys at your bus stop with my big surprise!"_ Nanoha nodded her head forgetting her friend couldn't see her. _"It's awesome I promise!"_ The chocolate haired girl ended the call after that leaving her friend speechless.

Shaking her head with a quiet laugh Nanoha tucked away her phone eased herself back into her seat. Hayate was one seriously quirky character and a little hard to follow, but she was the friendliest girl in the world even though her life wasn't all puppies and rainbows. She had a lot to be angry about, but she remained strong and stayed positive. Everybody looked up to her because of that courage.

"I can't wait to get you back home," Suzuka whispered in a breathy voice. Her lover blushed heavily, but the excitement displayed on her face said she was far from embarrassed. "Oh the things I'm going to do to you…"

"You know I can't wait…"

_Oh boy_… Nanoha smacked her forehead and shut her eyes tight. _At least I have Hayate-chan still; I'm not the only seemingly straight girl in the group!_

The bus stop closest to their school neared and Nanoha could see her friend off in the distance, but upon further inspection the brunette caught sight of another person beside Hayate. A tall blonde wearing the same uniform as them stood behind the frail teen with her hands holding the wheelchair's handles tightly. She looked rather stiff in her position and looked around like a spazzy pigeon.

"Testarossa?" she muttered to herself. "Wha?"

The couple pulled themselves apart and leaned over their disgruntled friend to see what she was staring at. Arisa and Suzuka gasped out in surprise and began giggling uncontrollably; they went back to their seats and continued on in a private conversation leaving Nanoha in the dark.

Pulling the string requesting for a stop, the ponytailed teen grabbed her friends by the collar and dragged them off to the doors. They protested and begged to be let go, but Nanoha kept her iron grip strong.

Hayate perked up when her friends exited the bus. She shot the couple a strange look before settling on her more reasonable friend. "Hi hi!" she beamed.

"Morning," Nanoha kept her gaze focused on the shy blonde.

"Looky!" the short brunette slapped her wheelchair's arm rests excitedly. "It's brand new and shiny! Health care finally kicked in and replaced the old one!"

"That's great Hayate-chan," Nanoha replied. "It's about time that old thing got put to rest. Did you end up destroying it like you said you would?"

"Hoyeaaa," she nodded with a devilish grin. "I blew that thing up like the Fourth of July then sent it to the moon!"

"Awesome."

"So can anyone explain to me why the vice president is standing behind our favourite weirdo?" Arisa walked up to the other blonde and eyed her carefully. Fate jumped in her shoes and shied away from the invasive teen. "Well?"

"I-I… uhh…"

A charming laugh escaped the delicate teen's lips. She reached a hand out behind her and motioned for Fate to take it. The blonde eagerly accepted the offer and held onto Hayate's hand for dear life.

"I asked her out last night," Hayate began, a timid blush spreading on her pale cheeks. "And she said yes."

"Whoa…" both Suzuka and Arisa said in unison. "Did. Not. Expect. _That_."

"Surprise?" the grin on Hayate's face was priceless. She was smiling brighter than ever now that she held Fate's hand.

Nanoha was shocked. This was a real surprise alright. Hayate never gave any signs about other tendencies and choosing Fate of all people really put things out there. She blinked rapidly and gapped like a fish out of water.

"Is she going to be okay?" Fate asked her girlfriend who nodded weakly. "You sure about that?"

"Yeah I'm sure; Nanoha-chan's just a little slow on the uptake."

Breathing out all the air in her lungs, the ponytailed girl clenched her heart and put on a strong front. "Congratulations, you guys look great together!" she said with a strained voice. "I guess we'll be seeing you more often, Testarossa-san?"

"Please call me Fate," she squeezed Hayate's hand for support. "I'll be in your care."


End file.
